Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2011 44 I t’s not hard to figure out why Chinese are known around the world for their high propensity to gamble. You just need to look back through time and will quickly realise that the Chinese people have a long documented history of gambling. The first record of gambling can be traced back to the first Chinese dynasty some 4,000 years ago. Gambling was recorded in every dynasty since then. In fact, many modern games like lottery, pai gow, fan tan , and mahjong are thought to have originated from China. Simple but innovative ancient Chinese games like liubo, shi pai and gu pai laid the foundations for later Chinese gambling games. From the middle of the 1800s to early 1900s, Shanghai was a magnet for many Chinese gamblers. They played a variety of local and foreign games including roulette in Shanghai’s large gambling complexes. These establishments could be found in the Shanghai International Settlement and Shanghai French Concession. At the same time, Macau’s Portuguese government legalised gaming in 1847 and hundreds of gambling dens began to flourish. While civil war in China eventually led to communist rule and hence the end of all commercial gaming there, Portuguese- run Macau became a “permanent gaming region” in 1961. An examination of history shows a strong need for gaming entertainment among Chinese officials and commoners for thousands of years. Surely, very strong demand must have led to the massive supply of games and gaming venues across Asia. To examine Chinese gambling would require us to look beyond Chinese gambling history. I believe culture plays a key role in Chinese gambling. Yet it is incorrect to say that Chinese culture has directly encouraged Chinese people to gamble more than other cultures. On the contrary, traditional Chinese values as advocated by Confucius should have discouraged gambling since gambling, as a human activity, was deemed to be wasteful and could potentially lead to social disorder. In the past, social order was important for the management of large Chinese societies. Ancient rulers always strived to achieve social order, leading to gambling being subjected to controls and sometimes bans over the history of China. Culture can take different forms and have different effects on people. A number of studies have shown that Chinese gamblers have an exceptionally high illusion of control. They believe they can control the outcome of gambling events, be it baccarat, blackjack, sic bo , or lotteries. This characteristicof Chinesegamblersmay Chinese Gambling Unlocking the World of Chinese Gambling by Desmond Lam